Looking into the crystal ball, here, and I see a lot of clouds around horse racing’s future.
I can see this sport being marginalized, like greyhound racing. Perhaps even criminalized, like cock-fighting.
Any sport that involves animals that haven’t signed a legal waiver or given verbal consent before an attorney … is in big trouble.
We have PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to thank/blame for that.
Perhaps you saw the fatality at the end of the Kentucky Derby, on Saturday.
Eight Belles, the only filly in the race, broke down not long after finishing second, and was “euthanized” on the track after vets determined the 3-year-old couldn’t be saved.
It is believed to be the first fatal incident at the Derby in 134 editions of the event, but it quickly led to this shot across the bow at the horse-racing industry by PETA.
PETA wants the horse’s rider suspended. For not knowing his horse was about to break both ankles.
This is just part of a broad societal trend toward projecting the personal rights of human beings into the animal world.
It’s happening. It is.
People who fish? Suspect. People who hunt? Gun-toting, knuckle-dragging freaks. I’m not saying they are, but that’s how they increasingly are portrayed. Out of step. Behind the curve.
Foie gras? An abomination. Meat? Only for the conscienceless.
And horses forced to run around a track? Sometimes whipped by riders? Unsavory. Unseemly. Unlikely to last another 100 years.
It’s called the Sports of Kings. Notice how many kings are left in the world? Right. Not many.
The racing industry can talk all day long about how statistically insignificant fatalities are (one in 1,000, seems to be the stat horse people prefer), but a couple of high-visibility breakdowns (Eight Belles now, Barbaro two years ago in the Preakness) pushes this subject forward by light years.
Better enjoy the Kentucky Derby. It’s going to be as passe as dog fighting, and within this century. Maybe this half-century. I see it coming.
6 responses so far ↓
1 DPope // May 5, 2008 at 4:32 PM
If only I had Eight Belles boxed in my $2 exacta with Big Brown. I’d be rich!
2 Mike Rappaport // May 5, 2008 at 5:34 PM
What, to place or to die?
3 Char Ham // May 6, 2008 at 8:53 AM
I’m neither into an animal rights activism or hunting/fishing. But having grown up in Arcadia (home of Santa Anita), it surprises me the outcry over horse racing didn’t occur decades earlier. I often wondered why I never heard of orgs like PETA protesting in front of the horse tracks.
Migrating from a topic a moment, as horse racing is not attracting as many fans and the attendance @ the tracks has died off, the tracks have tried other means to make revenue. Night clubbing, which didn’t catch on @ Hollywood Park and now Santa Anita has voted in a Universal Citywalk styled park (why go there when L.A. & Hollywood is minutes away?) It is not only the tracks that suffer from the reduced revenue, but the cities it is in as well. Pre-Prop 13, even though next door Temple City was mainly middle class residents, Arcadia has its share of upper middle class residents. Yet, the property taxes for the most part were less in Arcadia. Why? For every admission @ the track, any attendee paid a $0.25 tax to the City (this is late 1970’s cost for the tax, when I lived in the area). Of course, the City wants their revenue & the residents want to pay less for their property tax. Quite a dilemma.
4 J.P. Hoornstra // May 6, 2008 at 12:08 PM
I don’t see it coming. Unlike greyhounds and roosters et al., breeding, training, owning and racing horses requires tons of money. The principals involved in this sport probably wield enough political influence in this country to keep it around as long as they want. It would take some massive public outcry to overturn this.
If you can gamble on it, they will come.
5 George Alfano // May 6, 2008 at 12:41 PM
People may not go to the track to wager, but they can place their bets at other tracks, venues like the National Orange Show, and on-line.
6 Char Ham // May 7, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Another comment on waging horses. One reason it is not as popular as going to Vegas or the Indian casinos is if you truly follow it, you can make some money.
When I was dating my husband he worked p/t @ a newstand not far from Santa Anita. There were regulars who would buy the racing form. They told him you need to follow it daily (remember, there was no Internet back in the late 70s). Even on the days they didn’t go to the track, the newstand would save several days of the racing form for them. Some of them had bio-rhythm charts and other such charts following the nags. It took dedication, but it paid off.
Nowadays, who has the time to do that? Sure, it’s a crap shot (pardon the expression) but it takes a lot less work hitting the slots or buying lotto tix. People gravitate to poker because of the games interacting w/the dealer and other players. You don’t have that with betting on the horses.
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